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NFL teams should look to fill needs in free agency, according to former Colts GM Bill Polian

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Former NFL executive Bill Polian, far right, said teams need to fill their needs during free agency so they can take the best available players in the draft.
(Photo by Steven Forster, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

With the NFL free agency period set to start in a week,
former Indianapolis Colts General Manager Bill Polian, now an analyst for ESPN,
said there is blueprint that many teams try to follow when it comes to the
offseason talent acquisition frenzy.

"In free agency you are looking to fill a need," Polian said
during a conference call Tuesday morning. "In free agency you are absolutely
looking at the finished product. Those players are not going to get any better
than they are now. At 26 years of age or 27 years of age they are at their
peak. They are not going to get better than what they are. In theory you can
say I can plug this guy in and he will preform at a certain level."

But it's not always that simple. Polian said the success rate
of NFL free agency is slightly better than 50 percent.

"There is the system issue," he said. "It's been my
experience when a player is changing systems it takes generally a year for him
to adapt to his new surroundings, to a new system, to his new teammates. They
don't come in as a general rule and instantly become successes.

"When they are in the same
system the odds are better that they will perform. You're making a job change
and we all know when you make a job change there are issues that you have to
deal with."

When the free agency period
begins March 12, the New Orleans Saints aren't expected to be major players
because of their salary cap restraints. But it's clear Polian believes that's
the time when teams you should look for the players that are "finished products"
as opposed to trying to find those players in the draft.

In years past, Saints General
Manager Mickey Loomis has attempted to fill the team's most glaring needs in
free agency, which allowed the team to select the best available player in the
draft.

"Free agency is almost always aimed at a need situation
simply because of the cost," Polian said. "Free agency brings with it a premium
cost. And that's the nature of it. That's why the union fought so hard to get
it so many years ago. You almost always try to fill a need (in free agency).

"The second is cost. What is the cost? What is the outlaying
cash? What are the outlaying guarantees? And in many respects, particularly in
this early period that we are about to enter, the market place dictates that.
You can sit here, and I often did, this player should only command X and then
the market would open up and the player would command X plus Y. ... We don't know
what the market will bring. We know
where there are numbers and clumps of players."